I am delighted to announce that Years 6 to 8 at St Christopher’s have the opportunity to take part in the first Junior version of the Leonardo Creative Competition, which has run for many years at Brighton College. In recent times, it has been sponsored by Mr Philip Mitchell, an Old Boy of St Christopher’s and Old Brightonian. Named after the famous artist, inventor, and polymath, it is an open-ended creative challenge encouraging the children to show their imagination and skills, and often unearthing hidden talents.
Entries fall into six categories: Creative Writing; Art & Design; Music, Dance & Drama; Film, Animation, & Computing; and Photography & Digital Artwork. More precise guidelines in terms of length and format have been sent to Years 6 to 8 children and their parents. Once entries are all in after Easter, we will share them with the whole school. We hope that this will then inspire the younger children to enter the competition as they reach the top of the school. There will of course be prizes, and every single entry gains points for your House. The shortlisted entries across St Christopher’s, BCPS, and Handcross Park will go on to an awards ceremony hosted here in Hove in June.
The competition was launched on Thursday morning, and there was much excitement about the possibilities. Mr Holt was impressed with how much the children could tell him about Da Vinci himself, but disappointed so few had heard of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The children looked at a previous entry from the Senior competition, which was an ingenious and thought provoking stop-motion Lego animation showing the history of planet Earth in 115 seconds! There are already some plans for group submissions of a dance piece, and we have already been asked a question about whether a piece of coding could count. This answer is a definite yes!
This morning, we were delighted to welcome back Old Boy Rufus, now at Brighton College, to show us some of his fantastic entries to previous years of the Senior Competition. He gave us some insight into what the distinguished panel of judges are looking for. Creativity comes in many forms and can often be found in some unexpected places. The themes are usually very broad in scope, and the judges are looking for some lateral thinking in how the brief is interpreted.
This year’s theme for the Junior version of the challenge is Planet Earth – there is literally a world of inspiration out there waiting for you! The closing date is Friday 19th April. the end of the first full week of Summer Term. This gives the children plenty of time over Easter to be creative. Time to demonstrate some hidden talents or perhaps discover some new ones!
Ms Elizabeth Lyle, Head